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What Does Alcohol Advertising Tell Young People About Drinking?

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What Does Alcohol Advertising Tell Young People About Drinking? University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive) Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health 2007 What does alcohol advertising tell young people about drinking? Sandra C. Jones University of Wollongong, [email protected] Parri Gregory University of Wollongong Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/hbspapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, Life Sciences Commons, Medicine and Health Sciences Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Jones, Sandra C. and Gregory, Parri: What does alcohol advertising tell young people about drinking? 2007. https://ro.uow.edu.au/hbspapers/54 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] What does alcohol advertising tell young people about drinking? Abstract Alcohol has long been known to be the cause of significant physical, emotional and social harm in our society. Given that the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcoholic products is big business all over the world, clearly the marketing, advertising and promotion of these products is essential. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding the relationship between advertising and alcohol consumption and, importantly, the influence of this advertising on harmful drinking patterns. To examine the potential influence of alcohol advertising on young people (both under and over the legal drinking age), a convenience sample of 287 young people recruited from a range of settings (including high school, university, TAFE and the workforce) were shown two advertisements (one print and one television), and asked whether they believed a range of messages were evident in each advertisement. We found that the majority of adolescents believe alcohol advertisements often include several messages which breach the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC), highlighting the ineffective nature of this self-regulatory scheme. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication Details This conference paper was originally published as Jones, SC and Gregory, P, What does alcohol advertising tell young people about drinking?, Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) Conference, 2007, 1168-1174. This conference paper is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/hbspapers/54 What does Alcohol Advertising tell Young People about Drinking? Sandra C. Jones, Parri Gregory, Centre for Health Initiatives, University of Wollongong Abstract Alcohol has long been known to be the cause of significant physical, emotional and social harm in our society. Given that the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcoholic products is big business all over the world, clearly the marketing, advertising and promotion of these products is essential. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding the relationship between advertising and alcohol consumption and, importantly, the influence of this advertising on harmful drinking patterns. To examine the potential influence of alcohol advertising on young people (both under and over the legal drinking age), a convenience sample of 287 young people recruited from a range of settings (including high school, university, TAFE and the workforce) were shown two advertisements (one print and one television), and asked whether they believed a range of messages were evident in each advertisement. We found that the majority of adolescents believe alcohol advertisements often include several messages which breach the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC), highlighting the ineffective nature of this self-regulatory scheme. Introduction There is an ongoing debate, in the literature as well as in policy circles, as to the relationship between advertising and alcohol consumption. Some econometric studies have reported no association between advertising bans and alcohol consumption or abuse (e.g., Nelson, 2001), whereas others have argued that bans on alcohol advertising result in lower per capita alcohol consumption and lower alcohol-related vehicle fatality rates (e.g., Saffer, 1991). Similarly, there is an ongoing debate as to whether alcohol advertising targets underage drinkers; with some arguing that the content of alcohol advertisements is often designed deliberately to appeal to those under the legal drinking age (e.g., Garfield et al., 2003) and others that alcohol advertisements do not intentionally target underage drinkers (e.g. Slater et al., 1996). Whether intended or not, there is increasing evidence that children and youth are exposed to, and recall, alcohol advertising (e.g., Collins et al., 2007) and like alcohol advertising (e.g., Grube, 1993). Further, there is also increasing evidence of associations between liking ads and underage drinking (Austin and Nach-Ferguson, 1995); between exposure and alcohol expectancies (Grube, 1995; Lipsitz et al., 1993); exposure and drinking intentions (Grube and Wallack, 1994; Kelly and Edwards, 1998); and even between exposure and current or future drinking (Wyllie et al., 1998, Snyder et al., 2006). However, the impact of alcohol advertising on young people goes beyond these direct associations between exposure and drinking behaviours. Other concerns voiced by policymakers, academics and community members include the effect of alcohol advertising on young people’s perceptions of drinking and the normative behaviour (e.g., Jernigan, 2006); and the reinforcement of gender and racial stereotypes (e.g. Alaniz and Wilkes, 1998). In 2005, the Australian Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing conducted a survey on consumer perceptions of alcohol advertising and the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code 1168 (ABAC) with a random sample of 1000 Australian adults (King et al., 2005). Key findings from this study included that 60% of respondents stated that alcohol advertising should be either more restricted or entirely prohibited; that 69% believed that alcohol advertising encourages underage people to drink alcohol; and that 52% believed that it encourages underage people to drink too much alcohol. The purpose of the current study was to examine, using a series of advertisements that the authors perceived to be in breach of the ABAC Code, what the perceived messages were from the perspectives of young people (both above and below the legal drinking age). Method From May 2004 until March 2005 television and magazine advertising campaigns (national and regional) were monitored for alcohol products. The television advertisements were monitored via a media monitoring service and the magazine advertisements were monitored by manually examining all issues of the top 20 selling magazines in Australia. A research assistant collated all advertisements and commercials and prepared a monthly summary for the Chief Investigators (CIs) comprising those which potentially breached the codes of the ABAC and the ASB. The three CIs independently reviewed these summaries and 13 advertisements were considered in breach of the codes, including seven television commercials and six magazine advertisements. These advertisements were the stimuli for the present study. A convenience sample of 287 young people aged 15-24 was recruited: 110 secondary school students aged 15-17 years from secondary schools in the Melbourne metropolitan area; 143 tertiary students aged 18-24 years from three tertiary education campuses (110 from two university campuses and 33 from a TAFE); and 34 employed young people aged 18-24 years from a variety of “white collar” and “blue-collar” workplaces. Just under one third (30.2%) of the respondents were male and 68.2% were female (gender was not reported for the remaining 1.6%). The mean age of respondents was 18.9 years (range 15 to 24), with 37.2% under the legal drinking age of 18. Each participant was provided with an information sheet that introduced the project, explained the rights of participants and gave contact details of services that could provide counselling if required. Each respondent independently completed two questionnaires, one for a print advertisement and one for a TV advertisement, under supervision of project staff. In total, 572 completed surveys were returned, from a total sample of 287 respondents. Results Perceived Messages in the Advertisements There were some strong indications that respondents see several social benefits of consuming alcohol in general. As shown in Table 1, 74% of responses indicated that the advertisement contained the message that drinking the advertised product would make them more sociable and outgoing; 89.9% that the advertisement suggested that the product would help them have a great time; 69.8% that it would help them fit in; 64.9% that it would help them feel more confident; 58.9% that it would help them feel less nervous; 46.5% it would help them succeed with the opposite sex; and 42% that it would make them feel more attractive. 1169 In general, there were no significant differences between males and females in response to this series of questions, however females (67.9%) were more likely than males (58.4%) to believe that drinking the product would make them feel more confident (χ2=4.8; p=0.028). There were no significant differences between those over and under the age of 18 for any of the social benefit-related questions, with the exception of the perception that the product will help them have
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